A kangaroo has been killed by visitors to a zoo, who threw bricks at the trapped animal in a sick bid to get a reaction.

The 12-year-old female suffered a severely injured foot when chunks of concrete and bricks were lobbed into her enclosure, according to state media in China.

The kangaroo, at the Fuzhou Zoo in Fujian province, died a few days later and an examination by a veterinarian revealed that the cause of death was likely a ruptured kidney caused by being struck by the projectiles.

A few weeks later, a five-year-old male kangaroo at the same zoo was slightly injured in a similar way, the report posted on the network's website stated.

The report included pictures of the first kangaroo's smashed and nearly severed foot, and of the animal receiving treatment via intravenous drip before it died.

This Hispanic woman with a slight accent caught a fellow Hispanic woman attempting to drop off a couple of dogs on the side of the road near her house. She quickly director her to take them over to the ASPCA instead where the dogs would perhaps get a better life if adopted.

A series of shark attacks off Australia's west coast have struck fear in the hearts of some of the world's top surfers, with at least two pro competitors voicing their concerns about getting back in the water.

Brazilian pro-surfers Italo Ferreira and Gabriel Medina took to Instagram on Tuesday to tell their fans they 'do not feel safe training and competing in this kind of place.'

The kind of place they're referring to is a pair of breaks off Gracetown, in Western Australia's south-west, where two other surfers were attacked by sharks during the Margaret River Pro competition, Nine News reports.

On the afternoon of April 16th, in the Kunming Yuantongshan Zoo, when a giraffe itched outside, the head was stuck on the tree trunk. The staff cut the tree shrews and the saved giraffes died because of the rescue.

Harrowing new footage has emerged showing obese 'monster foxes' bred for their fur in shocking conditions on farms in Finland.

The horrifying video, part of an undercover investigation, shows dangerously overweight animals with huge pelts and rolls of folded skin locked up in cramped cages.

Activists say the bloated silver foxes are being bred up to five times their normal weight for the lucrative fur market. Wildlife expert Chris Packham has described the footage, captured in western Finland, as 'heartbreaking'.

The video, released by Finnish campaign group Oikeutta eläimille (Animal Justice), purports to show conditions at a 'high-welfare' farm. But animals are shown with rolls of fat while some have weeping eye conditions and deformed feet.

WARNING - GRAPHIC AND DISTRESSING IMAGES: Staffordshire Bull Terrier Diesel was seized by police after members of the public reported seeing the dog being assaulted by a man

Eight-month-old Staffordshire Bull Terrier Diesel was seized by police after members of the public reported seeing the dog being assaulted by a man.

The dog’s owner, Tyler Laverick, was visited by police at his home in North Shields, north of Newcastle, where they found the injured pet inside.

A court heard that, when asked how he suffered the visible wounds to his head, 20-year-old Laverick responded by saying “I was biting him, I was stoned”.

Diesel was seized and taken to a nearby vets while the case was reported to the RSPCA and Laverick, of Front Terrace, North Shields, was cautioned and arrested for causing unnecessary suffering to an animal, Chronicle Live reports.

It sports a green mohican, fleshy finger-like growths under its chin and can breathe through its genitals.

The Mary river turtle is one of the most striking creatures on the planet, and it is also one of the most endangered.

The 40cm long turtle, which is only found on the Mary river in Queensland, features in a new list of the most vulnerable reptile species compiled by the Zoological Society of London (ZSL).

Despite the turtle’s punk appearance – derived from vertical strands of algae that also grow on its body – its docile nature made it historically popular as a pet.

Gill-like organs within its cloaca – an orifice used by reptiles for excretion and mating – enable it to stay underwater for up to three days, but it was unable to hide from the pet collectors who raided its nests during the 1960s and 1970s.

The turtle is placed at 30th on ZSL’s Evolutionarily Distinct and Globally Endangered (Edge) list for reptiles. First established in 2007, Edge lists have previously been published for amphibians, birds, corals and mammals, helping guide conservation priorities for 100 most at-risk species. Each species is given a score which combines extinction risk with its evolutionary isolation or uniqueness, with the latest list supported by a study in the journal Plos One.

Top of the list is the Madagascar big-headed turtle, which has an Edge score higher than that of any other amphibian, bird or mammal, and is still taken for food and global trade.

Other unusual and endangered species include the Round Island keel-scaled boa from Mauritius, a snake which is the only terrestrial vertebrate known to have a hinged upper jaw; the minute leaf chameleon from Madagascar which is the size of a human thumbnail; and the gharial, a slender-snouted fish-eating freshwater crocodile. Less than 235 gharial survive in the rivers of northern India and Nepal.

The ancient remains of a gigantic marine reptile have been found in southwestern England. Known as an ichthyosaur, the animal lived about 205 million years ago and was up to 85 feet long—almost as big as a blue whale, say the authors of a study describing the fossil published today in PLOS ONE.

Biology textbook have long touted the modern blue whale as the largest animal that ever lived, but this and other fascinating fossil finds hint that there may once have been even bigger creatures swimming Earth’s seas.